


Not as it was

by withered



Series: Who's been lovin' you good? [32]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, I'm nice to Scott tho, M/M, Not Clint Friendly, Not Steve Friendly, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Steve Is Delusional, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 09:18:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17578127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/withered/pseuds/withered
Summary: Steve is convinced there's something wrong with Bucky.Or,In which Bucky, with Mantis in tow, returns to Wakanda to bring the Rogues home.





	Not as it was

 

There was something wrong with Bucky.

For one, he’d been re-named the White Wolf, and though Steve would never fall for something so shallow, something wasn’t _quite right_ about him. He may have had Bucky’s face and his smirk and his voice, but Steve _knew_ Bucky. They’d been all each other had for years after Tally, Bucky’s older sister, had joined the frontlines as a military nurse, after Rebecca moved away with her husband, after Sarah Rogers passed away.

Steve knew Bucky like he knew his left hand, and something-something wasn’t right.

During the year apart wherein T’Challa had traded Bucky in for the good graces of the UN council and placed the Avengers on lockdown; Steve had worried and fretted and schemed to get to him, tried every trump card and plea in his repertoire, but the title of Captain America didn’t mean much when it was synonymous with vigilante justice and a blatant disregard for the people he’d aimed to save.

No doubt the result of Tony’s endless campaign to discredit them.

He had a whole team of smartly dressed lawyers and billions to burn, and Steve should’ve known he’d get T’Challa to turn on them too. A bunch of rich assholes _would_ band together to kick down the little guy, it was so typical.

Forget the fact that Tony and T’Challa had gotten them pardoned and returned to the United States. That didn’t matter at all, not when the Avengers weren’t fugitives to begin with; they’d done nothing wrong.

Though, Steve could admit that with hindsight, his actions weren’t exactly the smartest, but the Accords – the Accords were still wrong. “The safest hands,” he repeated often, and to whoever was still willing to listen to reason, “are our own.”

Except when those hands were Tony’s.

It wasn’t like he was _wrong_ for saying it, history proved it time and again. Tony couldn’t be trusted. Tony wasn’t… _good_.

SHIELD knew it. Howard knew it. Tony had made _Ultron_ , after all.

What was the UN thinking placing Bucky under Tony’s care?

Care, he internally scoffed, as if Tony knew _how_ to care. He’d successfully pushed everyone away his whole life, wasn’t that why all he’d ever been surrounded with were robots? He’d put Wanda, a poor kid who was just trying to do better, under house arrest! And then he’d thrown the rest of the Avengers into the Raft! Clint had a family! None of them deserved to be in there! And Bucky-Bucky hadn’t deserved getting stuck with Tony _for a whole year._

Look what happened! Bucky was so relieved to be away from Tony that he looked almost happy to be back in Wakanda!

At least, Steve comforted himself, Bucky looked good.

He hadn’t shaved recently, but he was groomed, and his hair was cropped short like it had been back when he’d first enlisted. He was dressed in a pair of dark brown pants and an all-black double-breasted jacket and matching boots, and Steve thought for almost a second that the Bucky before him was like the Bucky that was always in his corner in the war. Except there was an obvious metal shine to his fingers, and as he drew closer, the stitching of the word STARK is easy to spot over his heart.

What makes it worse? Bucky doesn’t even glance his way.

Instead, he approaches the assembled royalty as well as the Dora and paused to exchange the Wakandan salute like he wasn’t the American hero he was. Then, bafflingly, Bucky is motioned forward by the Queen for a kiss on the cheek, jokingly punched in the gut by the Princess before even T’Challa opens his arms to greet Bucky personally in a brotherly embrace.

The softness in Bucky’s expression, in his stature, seemed to cease up entirely when he finally turns his attention to the Avengers.

Something is wrong with Bucky.

He hadn’t deigned to greet any of them personally, and at most, Natasha got a nod.

 But the rest of them? Steve?

Bucky had been blank faced the entire time he was debriefed of the Avengers’ transfer from Wakanda back to the United States. He’d watched, sharp eyed and focused as they were loaded up onto the quinjet, hands still bound and Wanda still gagged like some kind of animal.

When she grew agitated with Bucky – no, the _White Wolf’s_ imposing form – the alien that had been waiting for him in the cockpit, an eerie looking humanoid with a pair of antennae on her forehead simply reached over and, “What are you doing to her, you freak?” Clint demands and the creature soothes sweetly, “I put her to sleep, she’s so…angry.”

“Well, you would be too if you were being touched by some disgusting -”

The sound of a gun cocking ricocheted through the space of the quinjet followed by Bucky’s familiar, protective, snarl, “Don’t talk to her like that.”

“Or what?” Clint returned in a sneer, “You’ll -”

A bullet lodged itself just between Clint’s legs, and he hissed, the profanities he shouted making the creature look thoughtful before reaching over though not before the White Wolf interjected, “Wait. I want him to be awake for this.” Stepping closer until he towered, he drawled with Bucky’s voice and Bucky’s accent and Bucky’s snark and said, “If I had my way, I’d be dumping you in the ocean with all your limbs snapped off. As it is, I promised Ms Potts and the Colonel that they’d get to look you in the eye when they hand you your walking papers.”

Clint sneered, and Bucky almost had a pleasant expression on his face as he added, “Talk to them like you talked to Mantis, _I insist._ ”

“So, what, you’re their attack dog now? God, I wouldn’t even be surprised. Bet Tony’s got your closeted gay ass presentin’ every chance he gets too while he’s at it--”

If it were possible, Bucky looms even more, a sharp blue glint in his eye that threatens a million ways to murder a man with his pinkie. “You better be damn careful what you say about Tony.”

The _Or what_? Hangs in the air thicker than the threat until the alien, Mantis, interrupts by placing a hand on his arm and pulling him gently away. “Tony said I need to make sure you don’t get agitated, and you’re getting agitated.”

“Oh,” Clint mocked, “so the alien bitch is your leash.”

 “Mr. James is not a dog, he does not need one,” Mantis says, seemingly unoffended despite the growl that rumbles through Bucky’s chest. “Though, what he and Tony do in the bedroom, I am told, does not count.”

Bucky closes his eyes, looking contrite. “God, Mantis.”

“Just Mantis is fine,” she waves off. “But he does have a dog,” she continues, still completely oblivious to Bucky’s embarrassed distress and the dawning horror look on Steve’s face.

 _Something is wrong with Bucky_ , he thinks almost desperately.

“You got a dog?” Sam asks instead, brows raising in almost curious surprise.

“His name is Sirius,” Mantis chirps, face scrunched up in an expression of glee as she declares, “he’s very fluffy.” And then she nods at him like it’s his doing and she’s congratulating him. Bucky seems to think so too as his stance softens, though his blush is still bright on his cheeks.

“Oh,” Scott asks, eyes lighting up. “After the constellation or the wizard?”

He replies simply, “Yes.” Though Scott seems to understand as he gives him finger-guns in apparent approval. “Knew it, always said it was a great name.”

“Ass kisser,” Clint snorts.

“Hey, dogs are cool,” he defends, “I promised Cassie I’d get one. She wants to name it Dobby.”

Bucky snorts, though not unkindly as he says, “The kids marathoned Harry Potter last week.”

“Yeah, she told me,” Scott says, looking a little sad, “Cassie loved it, by the way, thanks for you know, including her.”

He nods, short and curt, his mouth curling almost hesitantly, almost shyly. And Steve thinks, _it’s Bucky, it’s my Bucky_ , until, “No problem. Though, I gotta bone to pick with you, your Cassie’s got Tony hankering for a little girl to spoil and we’ve got enough kids as it is.”

Scott’s smile is almost mockingly broad and impossibly fond, and Steve feels sick. “She’s great, isn’t she?”

“What is this, Daddy Day Care,” Clint demands. “Why the hell are you so chummy with Super Steroids over there?” The archer glares at Scott like he’s been betrayed, and Scott, good natured as he is, only shrugs in mild concern. “Cassie likes them, and Tony’s been making sure Maggie and Kurt are doing alright.”

“You trust _Stark_ with your family?”

“ _You did_ ,” Scott reminds, and Clint looks so furious, Mantis doesn’t even wait to reach over and put him out, and for that even Steve is grateful.

It’s a short-lived feeling.

“Tony told me this wouldn’t be fun," Bucky muses. 

Mantis hums. “Did you have fun?”

“I got to shoot Barton, so yes.”

“Lying is not a good thing to do in relationships,” Mantis informs wisely, focusing ont the matter at hand, “That’s why Peter has stopped asking Gamora if he’s fat.”

“You’re right, I should have a word with him.” Almost on cue, his phone rings and he exhales, “Speak of the devil.” The tightness at his shoulders sags as he turns to answer, “Darlin’, when I get home, you’re in trouble.”

With Super Soldier hearing, Steve hears Tony’s chuckle, can practically see the wiggle of his eyebrows as he teases, “Oh, really, _what kind_?”

When Bucky smirks something downright dirty, Steve’s suspicions are confirmed, there’s definitely something wrong with Bucky.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I'd just like to thank you guys from the bottom of my heart for not being dicks. Seriously. I just dealt with some shit in an old fandom of mine and I still can't believe. 
> 
> I'm grateful to you guys for your non-shitty behavior towards my fics, and I'm grateful to you guys for being constantly wonderful so I hope you enjoyed Steve's little reality check as small token of my gratitude.
> 
> [Click here if you want to find out more about my work](https://everything-withered.tumblr.com/)


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